Thursday, 27 February 2014

1-2014

HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY TO THE BRA

Saying that the bra turns 100 years old this week is a little confusing. History has shown that all the way back to the 14th century women were wearing "corsets" and bra like clothing. But the bra that we have all come to know and hate turns 100 this week.

I'm not going to go into the history of the bra, let's face it most of us hate our bras, so let's see where the bra is going instead of where it's been. Hopefully bras will become more comfortable in the future.

A few fun facts about bras...

- The average woman owns 9 bras. - Of thouse 9 bras she only wears 6 on a regular basis.- $16 Billion is spent on bras worldwide a year.-36 C is the average bust size which increased from a 34B over the past 15 years. -According to studies, British women have the largest breasts. 50% wear at least a D cup.-In the 1920's a Husband and Wife team were the first to give the bra it's now standard "cup" size. -Until the 1920's bras were sized as a "one size fits all". -The Average boob weighs 1.1lbs.-Frederick's of Hollywood invented the first padded bra in 1947.-In 1948 Frederick's came along with the first push-up bra. -Frederick's of Hollywood also can be thanked for the first front hook bra and the thong. -Famiously in 1968 women turned to burning their bras, saying that they were "instruments of feamle torture". Fun fact, male police officers wouldn't contiune to allow the females to burn their bras so they had to settle for throwing them in trash cans.-In the 70's the first sports bra was invented out of two jock straps.

Now that we know a little of where the bra came from let's look at where the bra is going. Microsoft, Ravijour and the University of Rochester have all come up with new bras.

First up is Microsoft's Mood Meausering smart bra.

Researchers say this new prototype of the smart bra is embedded with with sensors that monitor a woman's heart activity to track her emotional moods and help combat overeating. The sensors can send a signal to your smartphone which will flash a warning message to help you step away from the fridge and make better diet decisions.

Next is a Japanese lingerie company called Ravijour.

This smart bra is a neo-futuristic chastity belt for your boobs. This bra has a clasp with a microchip built inside that will detect, by a built in heart monitor if what you are feeling is "true love". Sending a single to your smart phone keeping you safe from "sluttery". The clasp can only be unlocked by your dad (GROSS) or your one true love. The bra also comes with a free smartphone app. And last is a bra designed by a group at the University of Rochester. It seems they are taking a page out of Microsoft`s handbook and are also designing a bra to help women from emotional eating. I have no proof, but I`m going to go out on a limb and say this ``group`` is men.

Onto a serious note, A study in the European Journal of Cancer published facts that state premoenposausal women who do not wear bras are half as likely to get breast cancer then those who regularly wear a bra.

"Women wearing a bra 24 hours a day had a 3 in 4 chance of developing breast cancer.Women wearing their bras 12 hours a day, but not to bed, had a 1 in 7 chance of developing breast cancer.Women wearing bras less than 12 hours a day had a 1 in 152 chance of developing breast cancer.Those who rarely or never wore a bra virtually never developed breast cancer."So let's take a lesson from our mothers and aunts in the 70's and throw out those bras.